Plastic-free gardening is an admirable aim, but before we rush headlong down any of the alternative routes, we need to check for pitfalls. As much as gardening is about going forward – at full throttle at this time of year – sometimes it’s also about stepping back. As we champ at the bit to launch […]

There’s one plant I really look forward to in May and that’s the tall, statuesque allium, because they provide strong verticals, round or drumstick heads and vibrant colour. They’re versatile too, because these tall early-summer alliums look equally at home in the vegetable garden, or the flower border, and you can create your own river […]

One of the greenhouse crops that I have never quite cracked is aubergines. Perhaps they just need more than I’ve got: time to get them going early enough; patience and light to nurse them through late spring indoors; and then heat in the summer. Obviously with the eternal optimism of the gardener I am fairly […]

The glasshouse flower if you need bloom almost any month of the year the Poppy Anemones should be more commonly grown as these are also so useful for cut flowers. Anemone coronaria is the original wild species native to the Mediterranean region and this makes it more tender than most other species many of which […]

From now on my monthly tips are going to focus on what to do in the greenhouse, so let’s start with a few tips what to look for when buying a greenhouse. Buy the largest you can afford and leave space for expansion because however large your glasshouse, it will never be large enough! It […]

In a moment of madness, on a very wet January day in London, I went hurtling over an uneven pavement and broke my left arm in three places. I was on my way to a delicious Italian lunch, courtesy of one of my editors, which of course I never got. The good news is I’m […]

For successful, stress-free sowing with no ecological cost, work to nature’s timetable and let the sun supply the power. It’s here. The frogs know it; they’re back – defrosted after a few false starts – with an orgiastic vengeance. The dandelions know it; their patient rosettes are pushing up yellow-hinted buds. Nature all around knows […]

Jean Vernon explores the wonder of seeds. Growing plants from seeds is one of the most satisfying parts of being a gardener. It’s sometimes surrounded in mystery and perceived as something difficult, but take a look in nature, any bare patch of soil and you will see that seeds germinate outside all of the time. […]

I have written before of the tremendous value in our greenhouses from the Begonia tribe though I was mostly talking about their huge range of floral varieties. Now I am waxing even more enthusiastically about the foliage varieties of Begonia particularly B. Rex-cultorum. Rex is a term not often employed in botanical Latin and as […]

If you didn’t have time in the autumn, transplant conifers and evergreens later in the month, when soil temperatures rise. Dig round the plant just beyond the spread of its branches, cut carefully through any larger roots with a pair of old secateurs, keeping root damage to a minimum. Once the root ball is free, […]

Gardeners are very suspicious about organic gardening but, as I always say it isn’t a new-fangled thing. It’s been practised for centuries by our ancestors, who knew the importance of the natural world when it came to growing crops. Winchester Cathedral’s thousand or so 14th century roof bosses contains some with flowers and vegetables. These almost […]

These are tough times for those plants that are waiting in the greenhouse for warmer days. They have made it through winter, yes, and it is true that light levels are improving all the time, but many are weakened by their months in less-than-perfect circumstances, and need a little extra help to limp through to […]